I suppose there is nothing like a global crisis to bring this blog out of semi-retirement...
Allow me to say that as unbelievable as the headlines and news stories over the past few months have been, if you had truly been paying attention, this situation is no surprise at all.
The Coronavirus Covid19 Pandemic shouldn't really come as a shock to the world, for it was in the cards for just such a disease to break out and bring the global economy to its knees. These pandemics have taken place with a certain regularity across the world since the dawn of humanity, and they always bring with them a reset for human society. This pandemic will be no different, but the repurcussions for a planet with 8 billion people will be far more than profound.
Our society grew rather indolent over the past few decades, as the influence of technology dulled our senses to the real world and what of importance takes place in it. A majority of the world (myself included) were sucked into the social media vacuum, where endless selfies and self-promotion became the norm, a world where we willfully ignored climate change and the injustices of the current global economy. Likes and comments and followers became the measure of success. Vast numbers of people eschewed finding regular employment to become Instagram models or YouTube video stars. Turns out this is not a very good business model when the specter of a Second Great Depression hovers over all of our heads. No one is going to care about your self-glorifying post flexing your bicep muscles or your thoroughly-filtered bikini shot when they are searching for food to eat or a way to pay their own bills and keep their homes.
Still, even as this pandemic upends all manners of life day by day, the denials of the Entitled ring out. Surely, life will all come back to normal, right? We will all go back to that world soon, right? Remember, those gauzy, rose-colored days of February, when news reports of this strange new virus were pesky and irritating at most, when you just wanted to cruise in your car around town after work, get a quick meal at Olive Garden, go to the gym, catch a movie based on a comic strip and meet friends for a drink at the bar? What could possibly happen to make all those things impossible? When will we go back to normal? Well...never... to be quite certain.
At this point, even as the virus kills thousands a day, the threat of what comes after the virus is what is perhaps most daunting and terrifying. A much-ballyhooed New World Order has been ushered into place. Individual rights have been eroded or revoked entirely, sweeping changes to law are commonplace and limits on personal freedoms are everywhere. Perhaps a billion people around the world now find themselves without employment or a way to support their families. The globalized economy has come to a grinding halt in the course of a few weeks. Billions are trapped in their homes, even as the virus continues its relentless spread, finding loop holes in the social distancing, shut-everything-down method of control. Which, as it turns out, is no control at all. Welcome to Dystopia...
As of now, the fabric of life is tattered beyond recognition and will continue to be tattered well into the future. The effects of this pandemic will be cross-generational, much like the Great Depression of the 1930s. Only the start of World War II would bring about the impetus to end the Great Depression in the United States, as production of goods needed for the war effort drummed up industry and reinvigorated the work force. A war in today's world would have no such positive effect, with the proliferation of nuclear weapons a virtual guarantee of the true Apocalypse.
The domino effect of Covid19 is mesmerizing to watch, but the thought that these are real people dying by the thousands each day, people with families and loved ones, will make the spectacle far more sobering. To know that the virus has reached such far-flung places as the indigenous villages of the Amazon rain forest, remote Easter Island and the Congo of Africa, should put the scope of the catastrophe in a context most will understand.
The Blame Game will go on for eternity, of little or no consequence. Ultimately, societies will close in on themselves and xenophobia will become rampant around the world. People will be suspicious of newcomers, of people from other countries, creating panic that the virus will return, or an even worse virus will take its place. Global travel and tourism will become a distant memory. People will also learn to become more self-sufficient, with the knowledge that relying on the government or political leaders is probably unwise. No political leader has the wherewithal to lead their constituents out of this crisis, because no political leader alive today will live long enough to see the end of it. Even if a vaccine is discovered in the foreseeable future.
The end of the crisis is generations away...
Allow me to say that as unbelievable as the headlines and news stories over the past few months have been, if you had truly been paying attention, this situation is no surprise at all.
The Coronavirus Covid19 Pandemic shouldn't really come as a shock to the world, for it was in the cards for just such a disease to break out and bring the global economy to its knees. These pandemics have taken place with a certain regularity across the world since the dawn of humanity, and they always bring with them a reset for human society. This pandemic will be no different, but the repurcussions for a planet with 8 billion people will be far more than profound.
Our society grew rather indolent over the past few decades, as the influence of technology dulled our senses to the real world and what of importance takes place in it. A majority of the world (myself included) were sucked into the social media vacuum, where endless selfies and self-promotion became the norm, a world where we willfully ignored climate change and the injustices of the current global economy. Likes and comments and followers became the measure of success. Vast numbers of people eschewed finding regular employment to become Instagram models or YouTube video stars. Turns out this is not a very good business model when the specter of a Second Great Depression hovers over all of our heads. No one is going to care about your self-glorifying post flexing your bicep muscles or your thoroughly-filtered bikini shot when they are searching for food to eat or a way to pay their own bills and keep their homes.
Still, even as this pandemic upends all manners of life day by day, the denials of the Entitled ring out. Surely, life will all come back to normal, right? We will all go back to that world soon, right? Remember, those gauzy, rose-colored days of February, when news reports of this strange new virus were pesky and irritating at most, when you just wanted to cruise in your car around town after work, get a quick meal at Olive Garden, go to the gym, catch a movie based on a comic strip and meet friends for a drink at the bar? What could possibly happen to make all those things impossible? When will we go back to normal? Well...never... to be quite certain.
At this point, even as the virus kills thousands a day, the threat of what comes after the virus is what is perhaps most daunting and terrifying. A much-ballyhooed New World Order has been ushered into place. Individual rights have been eroded or revoked entirely, sweeping changes to law are commonplace and limits on personal freedoms are everywhere. Perhaps a billion people around the world now find themselves without employment or a way to support their families. The globalized economy has come to a grinding halt in the course of a few weeks. Billions are trapped in their homes, even as the virus continues its relentless spread, finding loop holes in the social distancing, shut-everything-down method of control. Which, as it turns out, is no control at all. Welcome to Dystopia...
As of now, the fabric of life is tattered beyond recognition and will continue to be tattered well into the future. The effects of this pandemic will be cross-generational, much like the Great Depression of the 1930s. Only the start of World War II would bring about the impetus to end the Great Depression in the United States, as production of goods needed for the war effort drummed up industry and reinvigorated the work force. A war in today's world would have no such positive effect, with the proliferation of nuclear weapons a virtual guarantee of the true Apocalypse.
The domino effect of Covid19 is mesmerizing to watch, but the thought that these are real people dying by the thousands each day, people with families and loved ones, will make the spectacle far more sobering. To know that the virus has reached such far-flung places as the indigenous villages of the Amazon rain forest, remote Easter Island and the Congo of Africa, should put the scope of the catastrophe in a context most will understand.
The Blame Game will go on for eternity, of little or no consequence. Ultimately, societies will close in on themselves and xenophobia will become rampant around the world. People will be suspicious of newcomers, of people from other countries, creating panic that the virus will return, or an even worse virus will take its place. Global travel and tourism will become a distant memory. People will also learn to become more self-sufficient, with the knowledge that relying on the government or political leaders is probably unwise. No political leader has the wherewithal to lead their constituents out of this crisis, because no political leader alive today will live long enough to see the end of it. Even if a vaccine is discovered in the foreseeable future.
The end of the crisis is generations away...